1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a railway vehicle bogie and to a process or manufacturing a side member for such a bogie.
2. Description of the Related Art
A railway vehicle bogie is intended to support a vehicle, such as a car body or motor car body, on a plurality of wheels supported on axles. Taking into account the masses of the car bodies or motor car bodies and their speed of movement, the forces due to accelerations of this stock, particularly during changes of direction, are considerable, with the result that it is usual to produce bogies in the form of massive parts made of steel or of welded structure. These massive pieces and welded structures are rigid and must be equipped with suspension and damping systems to ensure comfort for passengers or the absorption of vibrations due to irregularities of track on which the stock moves.
European Patent Application 0 031 008 discloses a railway vehicle bogie comprising H-shaped webs made of composite material. These webs do not enable the forces due to the vertical and transverse accelerations of the equipment in motion to be efficiently absorbed and do not allow the assembly of accessory or safety elements such as a motor, a braking system or a control system. In order efficiently to resist the dynamic stresses to which they are subjected, these webs should have a large cross-section, which would consume a large amount of composite material. This would increase the cost of the bogie and might raise technical problems of molding. PA1 a function of supporting the vehicle between the axles, PA1 a function of suspension of the railway vehicle, PA1 a function of damping the vibrations between the axles and the vehicle, PA1 and this, while ensuring drive of the box body or rail car with the functions of traction, braking and guiding on the track. PA1 winding a continuous lap of reinforcing fibers, over at least one turn, around two studs, so as to form a loop around these two studs, and PA1 polymerizing a resin-based matrix around these fibers.
It is a particular object of the present invention to overcome these drawbacks by proposing a bogie of which the side members present such a shape that they participate efficiently in the suspension of the vehicle.